Los Angeles County CA Archives History - Books .....Chapter 3 The Pioneer Settlement 1927 ************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/ca/cafiles.htm ************************************************ File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by: Joy Fisher http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00001.html#0000031 July 7, 2009, 7:44 pm Book Title: History Of Monrovia CHAPTER III THE PIONEER SETTLEMENT WILLIAM N. MONROE was the first settler in the district which was later christened after his name. He came to Southern California in the year 1875 and made the City of Los Angeles his headquarters, though spending much of his time in distant parts while engaged in railroad construction. He served on the Los Angeles city council in the years 1880 and 1881, resigning early in the latter year to pursue his work, which required his absence from the city for a prolonged period. Finally the nomadic nature of his occupation palled upon both Mr. and Mrs. Monroe, and they decided to seek anchorage in the quiet of a pastoral life. In April, 1884, having returned from San Antonio, Texas, after completing a contract for railroad construction, he sought an ideal spot for a country home. With the purpose of visiting the foothill country in the San Gabriel Valley in view, he purchased a spring wagon with a capacity of accommodating six passengers, and a span of ponies, whose names, Ruth and Naomi, later became familiar to the early residents of the city, and with his family, he started east along the base of the Sierra Mad re mountains. E. J. Baldwin, then well known to the nation as "Lucky" Baldwin, owned the Santa Anita Rancho and had erected a club house upon his domain near a winery a few miles west of the present city of Arcadia. Mr. Baldwin had platted a portion of his estate into thirty-acre tracts and was offering them for sale. He was at his club house when Mr. Monroe reached there. He interested the homeseekers in his property, brought them to the foothill slopes where Monrovia now stands, and explained the advantages the location enjoyed. Most of the slope was then in its primitive condition, untouched by cultivation. South of a line now marked by Orange Avenue was a barley field, but north of that, ancient oaks arose out of a tangle of brush and boulders, with light oak and sumac interspersed. Mr. Baldwin explained that the land had a plentiful water-supply of natural flow, with sources in both Sawpit and Santa Anita canyons and that the two canyons protected the intervening area from frost. Their little party stopped for rest under the cluster of magnificent oaks now at Primrose and Oak Avenue, which later was to shelter his imposing residence soon to arise among its protecting boughs. The scenic grandeur of the spot, the rich and fertile loam that gave its promise of a luxuriant vegetation, the wealth of waters going to waste, all bore evidence of the rare possibility of the location for a delightful home, so Mr. Monroe and his family were deeply impressed. They remained over night with Mr. Baldwin at the club house, visited the locality again the next day and deepened the favorable impression first obtained. Feeling that they could not find another spot that would satisfy them as well, they ended their quest and returned to Los Angeles with minds enthusiastically convinced. Within a short time they purchased eight of the thirty acre tracts. The north line of the Santa Anita Rancho in the limits of Monrovia was coterminus with the present Hillcrest Avenue and extended east to its junction with the Duarte Rancho whose western boundary was a line traversed now by Norumbega Drive. The history of the use of the water of Sawpit Canyon dated back to an earlier date when Alexander Wiel, a New York capitalist, owned the Duarte Ranch and Joseph W. Wolf skill, of Los Angeles, owned the Santa Anita Ranch. These men entered into a partnership to develop the water of the canyon for the use of both ranches and they constructed a dirt flume which carried the water from the point where the Monrovia and Sawpit Canyons met, to the two ranches, dividing it equally between them. For several years Mr. Wiel did not utilize the water to which he was entitled under their copartnership agreement, and when Mr. Wolfskill sold the Santa Anita Ranch to Mr. Baldwin, the new purchaser continued to maintain the flume in working order without assistance from Mr. Wiel, or his grantee, L. L. Bradbury. When the time came that Mr. Bradbury as successor in interest to Mr. Wiel in the Duarte Ranch wished to assert his right to the use of one-half of the water of the canyon, Mr. Baldwin brought an action in the courts seeking to restrain him in such use, claiming that Mr. Bradbury's right had lapsed by waiver for non-user. A short time before the coming of Mr. Monroe, this matter had been decided by the courts, holding that the action of Mr. Wolfskill and Mr. Baldwin in keeping the flume in working order, inured to the benefit of the original partnership agreement between Mr. Wiel and Mr. Wolfskill and kept that agreement alive, thus sustaining Mr. Bradbury in his right to the water. When this decision was rendered, Mr. Baldwin and Mr. Bradbury adjusted their differences and entered into an agreement to improve the conduit by substituting a large tile pipe flume for the dirt ditch. The late John A. Baxter, who operated a tile factory in Duarte, was awarded the contract for the construction of this work. Sawpit Canyon was a busy place at this time, for while a gang of men pursued the work of making and laying the tile pipe, a force of over thirty men was taking building rock from the canyon and hauling it to San Gabriel from whence it was shipped to Los Angeles. A great deal of building rock of excellent quality has been taken from these quarries as evidenced by the material in the present city hall located on the southwest corner of Myrtle and Palm, first known as the Granite Building, the material for which came from this canyon. The large spreading oaks on the southeast corner of Hill-crest and Magnolia shaded the tent of Mr. Monroe and his family when they arrived in May of 1884. With the industry that marked his railroad construction work and almost upon an equal scale, he commenced to clear the land of brush and boulders. He shipped a number of mules from his railroad camp and brought from Los Angeles a force of twenty white men and sixty Chinamen, and established a camp for them near the present site of the Pottenger Sanitarium. In June following their arrival, Mr. Monroe built a small cottage at 225 Oak Avenue, which they occupied until "The Oaks," a home of palatial dimensions, was erected on Primrose and Oak Avenue amidst the giant oaks that aroused their enthusiasm when they first viewed the locality on that fateful day in April. On the rear of the lot where the first small cottage was built, he constructed a large barn, stabling the mules on the ground floor and providing apartments for the carpenters on the second floor. When "The Oaks" was built, a brother, C. O. Monroe, occupied the small house and continued to live there for many years. Mr. Monroe broke up the many large boulders that lay upon his land and advertised among the Los Angeles builders that free rock was to be had on his place and secured the removal of vast quantities of it in this way. This rock was quite suitable for building purposes, although it was more disintegrated than the firm granite that was being taken from the canyon. Ground squirrels proved to be a populous and trying pest and a bounty of twenty-five cents was offered by Mr. Monroe for each one killed on his property and several small boys were enriched by their industry in exterminating them. However, this proved slow work and poison was tried, with but undetermined results as many of them died in their holes and the progress of extermination was not so readily seen. He wished to establish a school district to secure county aid for instruction for his children and those in the neighborhood. But under the law, it was necessary to have at least fifteen children in the district of school age before such a district could be formed. He had four children of his own, his brother, C. O. Monroe, had three, and a couple of families far to the south, near the San Gabriel River, had five more, but this left a deficiency of three. However, the resourceful "Lucky" Baldwin came to the rescue and loaned the district a family having three children of school age. They were housed in a tent on the ground and maintained there while the work of district organization went on. The unusual outline of our district in extending a couple of miles or so south of Duarte Road was to take in these five children so badly needed for legal purposes. Miss Anna Dickey of Pasadena was the first school teacher to teach in the district after it was formed. School was first held in the cottage occupied by C. O. Monroe on Oak Avenue. The teacher was at first employed as a governess for Miss Myrtle Monroe and then her duties were enlarged to include the district instruction. Additional Comments: Extracted from: History of MONROVIA By JOHN L. WILEY ILLUSTRATED 1927 PRESS OF PASADENA STAR-NEWS PASADENA, CALIFORNIA File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/ca/losangeles/history/1927/historyo/chapter3527nms.txt This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.net/cafiles/ File size: 9.5 Kb